Tippecanoe County begins climate change action plan

A new Climate Action Plan Project will help shape a greener future in Tippecanoe County.

And tippecanoe county are coming together to create a more eco- friendly community.

As news 18's balint szalavari reports, it's part of a new county- wide climate action plan project.

Dennis: "we're working on making sure our environment is going to be a healthy environment not just in our time, but for the future."

Tippecanoe county is taking the next step in building a greener future.

A county-wide climate action plan has now been approved by county commissioners and both cities.

Deverall: "the climate has already changed.

So there are things that we need to and plan for right now to prepare for things that are going to impact the city, the residents and business."

Lafayette economic development's project manager margy deverall says the new project will help address issues caused by the changing climate.

Deverall: "going forward we can make sure that we're not making it worse and look at policy changes, practices, good practices that will help prevent it from getting worse."

The project will be split into five different phases.

West lafayette mayor john dennis says the first two will focus on developing schedules ancommunication plans for the project.

Dennis: "we have made some significant mistakes in so far as taking care of our base, of our home, of our planet.

And it's now time to reverse that change."

Last year, west lafayette passed a resolution to reduce carbon emissions and increase energy efficiency.

Dennis says having a county-wide initiative will greatly benefit the community moving forward.

Dennis: "this is how we take all the small projects and all the great work thats been done individually, put it into one strong collaborative effort and really start having some metrics that we can move toward in the future."

Reporting in tippecanoe county, balint szalavari, news 18.

Phases one and two are expected to take around two years to complete.

After, the project will focus on public outreach and implementation.

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